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In some Muslim eyes, another case of "Flying while Muslim"

(AP) The police report listed the incident as
"Security-Other," but some saw the detention of imams at the
airport here as another case of "Flying while Muslim" - the sense
that Muslims come in for extra scrutiny when they fly.

In the most recent case, six Muslim scholars were taken off a US
Airways flight to Phoenix after a passenger reported overhearing
them criticize the U.S. in Iraq and speaking angrily near the gate.
The men said they had been praying.

The flight's captain ordered the men off the plane, and they
were interrogated by the FBI and the Secret Service. They had to
fly a different airline out of town on Tuesday after US Airways
refused to let them on any of its flights.

It was just the latest in a line of incidents involving
passengers who were Muslim or, in some cases, just not Caucasian.
In August a flight from Amsterdam to Mumbai was escorted back to
the airport by F-16 fighters because a group of Indians on the
plane had a large number of cell phones, notebook computers and
hard drives, and refused to follow the crew's instructions,
authorities said.

Marwan SadeddinPhoto by Jeff Topping/Getty Images

Dr. Shahid Athar avoids bringing Arabic literature with him when
he flies to avoid raising the suspicions of airport screeners.
Athar, head of medical ethics for the Islamic Medical Association
of North America and a professor at Indiana University School of
Medicine, still prays before he flies. Generally quietly, in a
corner. He said he has never had any run-ins with airport security.

"In this country, there was a time that Catholics were
profiled, and they were stereotyped and discriminated (against),
and Jewish people. It looks like it is our turn now," said Athar,
who has written and lectured on Muslim interaction in the West.
"We need to learn from their experience not to give in on this
type of thing."

The scholars "thought that they are living in a society which
is free, a society of believers, where prayer is something good to
do," he said. Unfortunately, though, passengers "thought Muslims
were supposed to pray before they blow up things."

"Unfortunately, this is a growing problem of singling out
Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims at airport, and it's one
that we've been addressing for some time," said Ibrahim Hooper, a
spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The group
planned to file a complaint over the incident, Hooper said.

The six scholars had been in Minneapolis for a conference of the
North American Imams Federation. Those taken off the plane included
Imar Shahin, the group's president.

"It's discrimination," he said. He called for a boycott of US
Airways.

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, said Tuesday that the group has been
"receiving more reports of 'flying while Muslim' and racial
profiling incidents."

An airport police report said a US Airways manager said three of
the men had one-way tickets and no checked baggage. A passenger
told police the men were praying and making critical comments about
the war in Iraq. Some of the men also asked for seat belt
extensions even though a flight attendant told police she thought
they didn't need them.

The police report said the flight's captain had already decided
he wanted the men off the plane after the passenger passed him a
note pointing out "suspicious Arabic men."

An airport police officer and a Federal Air Marshal agreed that
the combination of circumstances was suspicious, and eventually
asked the men to leave the airplane. The police report said they
got off the plane without incident.

"The police came and take us off the plane in front of all the
passengers in a very humiliated way," Shahin said. "I never felt
bad in my life like yesterday. It was the worst moment in my life
when I see six imams, six leaders in this community, humiliated."

The Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights
and Civil Liberties said in a letter Tuesday it "has opened a
review of this matter, as it relates to the actions of employees of
this Department."

It also said the department will coordinate with other
government agencies with the authority to review the conduct of
airline and other government employees.

DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said that office "will routinely
review incidents that involve allegations that involve mistreatment
of individuals in the Arab and Muslim community."

Shahin eventually booked flights on Northwest Airlines - to
Phoenix for five of the imams from the Phoenix-Tempe area and to
Los Angeles for the sixth, who was from Bakersfield, Calif.

"May Allah the God forgive everyone who did this," Shahin said
before going through the security checkpoint on Tuesday in
Minneapolis. "We are doing this because we want America - the
America we love and the America we came for. Forgiveness,
tranquility, self-control, freedom of practicing your faith."

US Airways Group Inc. issued a statement saying it was
interviewing crew members and ground workers to find out more about
what happened.

"We are always concerned when passengers are inconvenienced and
especially concerned when a situation occurs that causes customers
to feel their dignity was compromised. We do not tolerate
discrimination of any kind," the airline said.

In Phoenix, CAIR spokeswoman Bushra Khan said the US Airways
flight crews should take "sensitivity training" and learn the
difference between Muslims and radical Islamic terrorists.

"The fact that this very small group (terrorists) has hijacked
our religion is not going to deter us from speaking out," Khan
said. "Prayer is not a suspicious or criminal activity."